Recent improvements to weigh-in-motion (WIM) systems, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,423,225 to Kroll et al., have provided man-portable means of accurately determining axle weights and spacings, total vehicle weight and longitudinal center of gravity for vehicles and pallets as they pass over WIM transducers. Because of the automated nature of WIM, it eliminates human errors due to time stresses, adverse weather conditions, and manual calculations and data entry.
Recent WIM technologies also provide a system and method for accurately measuring the weight of individual tire(s), the speed profile of the vehicle, the individual axle weights, the distance between axles, and the lateral and the longitudinal center of balance of the vehicle. The information is required for military deployments to load and balance an aircraft prior to take-off. The characteristics are also useful to commercial vehicle law enforcement officers to quickly and accurately determine the individual axle weights for highway safety. Industry uses this technology to determine the tare weight on incoming vehicles and then determine the load weight as the vehicle exits the facility. The technology is used to quickly and accurately determine the weight of product delivered to a facility. This WIM technology improves the weighing process by reducing personnel hours and the time required for deployment and by eliminating opportunities for human errors from the manual transfer of data or from the miscalculation of vehicle attributes.
Earlier solutions to accommodate ease of setup and teardown incorporated fixing the leading and trailing load cells. This “locking in place” results in the overall weight data being affected by the load cells themselves binding as vehicles crossed the weigh pads. When the load cells leading plate is removed, accuracy is better. However, when this technique is incorporated, setup and teardown becomes problematic. The current state of the art lacks a system that is easily installed and removed from its desired location. Typically problems encountered during installations include rotation of the foot members of a weighing system with respect to one another or with respect to the weighing platform. For these and other reasons, a weighing system having a pad with foot members having minimal or reduced rotation with respect to one another and/or with respect to the platform of the pad was needed.